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The network has given original series creator and executive producer Harry Thomason (who is also Bloodworth-Thomason’s husband) a script commitment for a show that will follow the next generation of Sugarbakers and a group of young female designers at an Atlanta interior design firm.

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Jason Kempin/Getty

The project has reportedly been in the works for months at ABC and will be produced by the same studio at Sony Pictures Television as the original.

“I’m very excited to be working with ABC,” Bloodworth-Thomason told THR. “And Sony has always been a great partner for Designing Women. Normally, I’m not a fan of reboots but Designing Women does seem to have the right feng shui for all that is going on right now. We could definitely have some fun.”

The original Designing Women, which was notable for its strong female cast, quippy one-liners, and unapologetic tackling of hot-button political, social, and gender issues, starred Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Jean Smart, and Meshach Taylor. It ran on CBS from 1986 to 1993.

Back in March, Potts, who currently stars on CBS’ Big Bang Theory spin-off Young Sheldon,told EW she’d be up for a Designing Women revival, so it seems likely familiar faces could appear on the sequel. “I would love that,” Potts said at the time. “I don’t know when I’d find the time for it, but I think that they could use a show like Designing Women — feisty smart women that didn’t take any B.S. from anybody.

“Every Monday night was a MeToo moment for us, and we were talking about it; we were very political,” she added. “I’m sad that there’s not such a strong voice, I don’t think, in any singular show. Nobody is doing what we did then. So yeah, if [Bloodworth-Thomason] wanted to write six episodes and do it in my hiatus, I would be there in a minute.”

“I was never sexually harassed or attacked by Les Moonves. My encounters were much more subtle, engendering a different kind of destruction,” she said. She wrote that her career at CBS, crowned by a $50 million contract, was a smashing success before Moonves arrived at the network.

After Moonves’ exit, CBS said that the network and Moonves “will donate $20 million to one or more organizations that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace.”

“For the past 24 years it has been an incredible privilege to lead CBS’s renaissance and transformation into a leading global media company. The best part of this journey has been working alongside the dedicated and talented people in this company,” Moonves said in a statement to Variety.

He wrote, “Untrue allegations from decades ago are now being made against me that are not consistent with who I am.”

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